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Behind The Brand: Digging Into Mother Dirt

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Behind The Brand: Digging Into Mother Dirt

Article written by Jenna Jolls, Mother Dirt 

With Mother Dirt entering its sixth year, we wanted to give our customers an exclusive look into our brand. We’re breaking down everything from our name to our logo and even our colors to give you a behind the scenes look at MD. Let's dig in.

OUR NAME

Have you ever wondered why our name is Mother Dirt?

The story begins with a question. One of our co-founders, Chemical Engineer and MIT grad David Whitlock, was asked why horses roll around in the dirt. He was so intrigued by that question that he began to research immediately -- he knew there had to be a reason that not just horses, but dogs, pigs and so many other animals liked to roll around in the dirt and mud. He was right. The animals were likely attracted to the dirt because they were able to reap the benefits of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB).

Whitlock found that AOB had tremendous benefits for the skin, and learned that it was found on human skin until about 50 or 100 years ago. He also found that as humans lost AOB, there was a rise in skin conditions, including acne, psoriasis, eczema, and dermatitis. As he thought about how the world had changed, he realized that our migration to mostly indoor lifestyles and the use of traditional skincare had wiped AOB from our skin, leaving a gap for those skin conditions to creep in without any good bacteria fighting them off.

He continued to dig and found what we like to call the proof: The Yanomami Tribe. The members of the tribe live in the Amazon, and still have AOB intact on their skin… and you guessed it, that goes along with beautiful, glowing skin with the absence of any skin conditions, including acne or psoriasis, etc.

From there, Whitlock discovered a way to reintroduce Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria to the human microbiome by using it to formulate our patented AO+ Restorative Mist --and Mother Dirt was born.

From our proprietary technology originating from dirt, to all of our products being made from naturally-derived ingredients, our brand connected us to Mother Nature in every way possible -- so our name simply had to be Mother Dirt.  

OUR BLOOM

Found in our logo, on our packaging, in our email designs and in most everything we do, the red six circle structure you see above is known as our bloom. But where did it come from?

We run compatibility testing on all of our products to ensure that they don’t destroy the AOB in our AO+ Restorative Mist. This test involves putting AOB onto plates with a dye that will bond to Nitrite and Nitric Oxide. If the AOB proves to be live and active, it produces red circles -- which is what inspired our bloom.

This dot structure can also be seen as a flower, bringing in the feeling of natural growth.

OUR LOGO

Featuring our bloom representing the O in Mother Dirt, our logo conjures the ideas of organic growth and balance. Through the variable height treatment within the Mother Dirt logo, we aim to evoke the feeling of organic, natural growth. Whether it's fostering literal growth of AOB, or unlearning toxic relationships with our own skin, it's a journey with peaks and valleys that is ever evolving.

OUR ACTIVE PROBIOTIC SYSTEM LOCK-UP

Also featuring our bloom, our Active Probiotic System lock-up can be found on all of our product labels. All of the supporting products are “AOB friendly” and designed to work together as a system along with our AO+ Restorative Mist, delivering maximum results and total skin wellness.

OUR LIGHTNING BOLT

Our live probiotic "lightning bolt" icon is a deconstruction and expansion of our brand bloom, explained above. Its outstretching and asymmetrical form evokes growth and life, and it can be found on our AO+ Restorative Mist bottle. This symbol indicates that the product contains billions of live and active probiotics -- 3+ billion CFUs in every bottle, to be exact.

OUR BRAND COLORS


Featuring purple, red, yellow, sand, and cream, our brand colors were chosen to further represent our ties to nature and the Yanomami Tribe. It was important to us that these five colors be incorporated in our branding, to represent our roots.

OUR LABELS

Have you noticed that the labels on our products came in three different colors? Here’s why:

PURPLE - FACE

Our purple product labels represent our face line -- including our AO+ Restorative MistPrebiotic Foaming Cleanser, Postbiotic Serum and Prebiotic Acne Lotion. You’ll notice that our Mist has even more purple on its label than the other face products -- that is because it’s our hero product and our entire Active Probiotic System is centered around it.

RED - HAIR

Our red product labels represent our hair line, which includes both our Postbiotic Hydrating Hair Wash and our Postbiotic Hydrating Conditioner.

YELLOW - BODY

Our yellow product labels represent our body line, which features our three most recently launched products: Postbiotic Revitalizing Body WashPostbiotic Moisturizing Body Oil and Postbiotic Deodorant. We chose to use yellow for this line since these products all contain lemongrass oil which gives them a subtle yet refreshing natural scent.

WRAPPING IT UP

From our name to our logo, to our colors and our labels -- everything we do and everything we create has a purpose. In the same way that we say "if it's in our formula, it's for a reason," if it's a part of our branding, it's for a reason too. We hope you enjoyed digging into Mother Dirt. Now you're OFFICIALLY part of the Dirt Squad.

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